Image Courtesy of GP2 Media Service
Julián Leal, one of the most experienced drivers of the 2015 grid, will contest his fifth season in GP2. The Colombian stays with British team Carlin, with whom he has already contested a successful 2014 campaign.
The 24-year-old began his career in single-seater racing in 2006 in the Formula Renault 2.0 PanAm GP series, where he scored two podiums and finished in 9th place. He moved to Europe in 2007 to spend two seasons in in the Euroseries 3000 and its secondary championship, the Italian Formula 3000. With the experience gained in his rookie season, Leal took 6th place in the main series with four podiums and won the Italian Formula 3000 championship one point ahead of rivals Fabio Onidi and Nicolas Prost.
At the end of 2008 Leal took part in a Formula Renault 3.5 test and was signed by Prema Power team for the 2009 season. The Colombian struggled constantly in his debut season, finishing in 20th place with a podium as his only points-scoring result. A switch to Draco Racing for 2010 brought only short relief, and he finished the season 20th position with a fourth place in the opening round as his best result.
In 2010, the Colombian also took part in the AutoGP series. He finished the championship in 7th place after scoring a win from pole position in the penultimate round at the Circuito de Navarra in Spain.
Leal then decided to set his eyes on the GP2 Series and took part in the post-season tests in November 2010. He joined the Italian team Rapax to contest the GP2 Asia Series, but his contract was extended to the entire season in March 2011. The Colombian finished his debut season in 27th place. In 2012, Leal switched to Trident Racing and improved slightly to finish the season in 21st place, scoring his first points in Valencia at the European Grand Prix weekend.
A change to Racing Engineering for 2013 brought further improvements for Leal. Alongside the championship winnerFabio Leimer, the Colombian scored 62 points including two sprint race podiums in Belgium and Italy, which brought him up to 12th in the championship standings at the end of the season.
Leal contested the 2014 season with Carlin. he had an excellent start to the season with two podium finishes in Bahrain and points in Barcelona. More finishes in the points followed in Spielberg and the Silverstone, but Leal’s form dropped in the second half of the season and he lost ground in the championship. One more points finish in Monza Sochi left him with a total of 68 points and 10th place in the championship.
For 2015, Leal remains with Carlin and looks forward to improve further in a positive environment. “I’m very happy to have the opportunity to stay here one year more,” states the Colombian. “With all the teams I have worked with this is the best one for me; it’s a team that listens to what you say and follows you and advises you and this is good for me because I can learn a lot in a good environment. I’m very happy for this opportunity, I want to prepare a lot and work hard for next year and get the car as perfect as we can. I want to start the year as we did this year [with a podium] but then maintain that performance for the whole season. I’m very very happy to be here for another season.”
